we're back tomorrow with more "mtp daily." "the beat" with ari melber starts now. >> i have sokatie tur, thank yo. tonight we begin, new tensions with russia, and bob mueller opening a new front on the russia probe. first this big probe, russia hitting back, kicking out 60 diplomats out of the country, this is after trump did what many said was too long in coming, expelling diplomats for faking that alleged blatant move of poisoning a former russian spy on uk soil. mueller probing russia contacts with the gop republican convention in 2016, and why the gop suddenly strangely softened it's stance against russia.

it is a question campaign chief paul manafort has faced before. there's been some questions about something in the republican party platform that essentially changed the republican party's view when it comes to the ukraine. how much did you have to do with changing that language, sir? >> i didn't. >> it's been said it came from the campaign. >> the new focus is on manafort, not just from a journalistic line of questioning. as in a different story, the white house scrambling to push back against these credible "new york times" reports, that trump recently, the recent ousted lawyer john dowd, i want to be clear, dowd is denying this story. mueller is not likely to take

him at his word. and mueller is not afraid to take lawyers to task. it wasn't just aggressive, it was almost unheard of. >> it's unusual for the government to subpoena somebody's lawyer, period. i mean if you have watched one episode of perry mason, you know how weird this is. when lawyers and their clients talk to each other, those communications are protected by attorney-client privilege. trying to force an attorney to testify about something related to his or her client, that is very unusual. >> unusual, but mueller pulled it off. he won that battle in court, making manafort's lawyer testify. now mueller has more questions for manafort's lawyers as well as now, donald trump's most recently departed lawyer. i want to turn now to bill crystal, editor at large for the weekly standard, margaret collison an editor for the daily piece and michael conway, an attorney who served during

presideduring -- bill crystal, all of this news i just ran through and the heat on the lawyer sngs. >> >> the mueller probe moves ahead, he has done a lot more than people realize and is closer than a lot of people realize. i think donald trump may realize, however, that things are getting hotter for him. and i continue to think that the prospect of an attempt to fire or limit somehow mueller's investigation and/or the prospect of pardons remains very real. i think trump thinks, he's wanted to do it for a long time and i'm thinking he's thinking the moment is close. >> and on the subject of flynn, margaret, there is very important, because this was before the fight ever got started, before there was a bob mueller special counsel probe, there were credible reports of donald trump trying to do what a

pardon might do now, before there was ever a need for one, which is stop the probe into flynn and james comey testified to this under oath. >> general flynn at that time was under legal jeopardy. my understanding was that he wanted me to drop any investigation into flynn's accounts of his relationship with the russians. i took it as a very concerning thing. margar m >> margaret, how does that relate to this new report? >> trump has always felt very protective of michael flynn and he told comey, that flynn was a good guy and that mueller should let him go. and we saw trump walking to the helicopter on the south lawn, he says then, i am not talking about a michael flynn pardon

yet. the yet, i think is the word to concentrate on. he's always wanted to do it. and i think as bill says, i think he's closer to feeling the hot breath of mueller on his neck than we know. and is more likely to, now that dowd is gone, to put into operation getting rid of mueller and to use that massive, broad pardon power. >> does that make mueller sort of a wolf? with animal breath? >> i don't know, you choose the animal. >> michael will tell you that -- something that i think is going to interest a lot of people, whether donald trump and john dowd realize it or not, everyone knows of course obstruction was the key part of the impeachment of richard nixon, but maybe

trump and dowd don't know that congressional investigators at the time simply looked at the abuse of, yes, the pardon and clemency power and it was an effort to silence potential witnesses. we don't know if john dowd dire -- trump directed john dowd to do any of this. from article 1 of the house judicial impeachment article stated that nixon was texpectin foufred treatment in exchange for their testimony. that is an impeachment article, that is a type of legal history looking at the abuse of legpard. not only did nixon let others discuss pardons, but he personally discussed potential clemency for a watergate co-conspirator, michael, as i

mentioned, you were in the middle of this, do you see any of this potentially applying if there was a misuse of the pardon power today? >> absolutely. it's a complete parallel with what president nixon did. in that case the lawyer you referred to is howard hunt. and howard hunt wanted clemency, and his lawyer went to the white house staff sand talked to nixon's attorney. howard hunt then pled guilty and wanted to be out of prison by christmas of that year. and colson talked to president nixon about it. in one of the white house tapes, he acknowledged that well, maybe there's family circumstances and so forth that could lead to clemency, and it wasn't just howard hunt, in order to get favorable testimony from a couple of other aides, including

john missile and mcruder. >> and the key there to imply that today, if you watch judge nap politano or the president's allies, they're going to say this is a lawful power, it's a constitutional power. even if nixon did have that power, i don't think that's up for debate, the abuse of it was a potential ingredient of impeachment, is that? >> if he pardoned flynn, flynn's pardoned, at least from federal crimes, but as you know not from state crimes, but yes, it's beyond his power to do this if it's for a corrupt purpose. the purpose is not just protecting president trump himself, but protecting his campaign, protecting his associates, protecting his family members. >> bill crystal, what do you think of this theory and do you think it's known in the white house? >> i think it may be known, but we'll see what they think. he keeps testing. trump, you and i have discussed this before, ari, and i think

you and i are in a minority in understanding trump. of course he's an adolescent -- >> i'm fine being in that minority. >> it's the best of all worlds. everyone says he's volatile, whatever the last person he sees on tv, he gives them a job. but directional, trump is moving towards those goals. in this case impeding and stopping and blunting and removing a possibly subject of this investigation. and he did this in fits and starts, he wans to get rid of the iran deal, and he gives up on that for four or five months and he gets move on it. that's very much what's happening in this case, he goes forward and he pulls back a little. and he's gone pretty far, in

terms of where we are right now, without much in the way of checks from republicans and that's the key to me, that if republicans on the hill have not stepped up in any authoritative way, and said mr. president, this you cannot do. and i just have to say, he keeps on moving forward. >> and margaret, with news today that andy mccabe, who was the only fbi director ever fired in american history, and obviously the only one fired after a false set of attacks posted online by a president on twitter, he's launched a defense fund, you can see it there, his family and his dog, he's an fbi veteran. and they say estimates are up over $115,000, which doesn't necessarily mean anything either way, because people in politics, i'm sure can draw from all sorts of corners of sources. but margaret, it does speak to what's going on in america right now, that someone who served their country for these 20 years and rose to a point, at one point was fbi direct for, was

fired after a haranguing political rant from the president, literally days for his pension would kick in, on and when i say these things, people think, oh, am i being unfair, this is just what it is, on secret evidence that has not been revealed or disclosed. i can fire the fbi director and the deputy director and get hit on all sides. >> andy mccabe evokes tremendous sympathy. >> that just evokes simply. but only maybe from about half of the country. but the fbi is a corrupt

institution, and filled with people from the deep state. people like joe digenova, so there are these two tracks going along. and trump gauges which ones are important to them. he's floated firing mueller a couple of times. and he floated firing andy mccabe. >> i can feel the wolf breathing on your. i turn to my exclusive report on roger stone.

>> the truth is he loves the boss and. >> but you are. >> what's love got to do with it? >> and what's wrong with this picture? facts of a new claim about the border wall. i'm going to show you that next.

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tonight and some very special guests. bob mueller just dropped a tantalizing clue in this russia probe, ealleging that a former putin spy worked with paul manafort in 2016, this after roger stone suggested a link between manafort and russia during the 2016 campaign. the most blatant crime is democratic emails. after 10 months of secrecy, former trump aid sam nunberg disclosed a special subpoena demanding testimony on key trump aides. all of them were on the trump campaign in 2016, except one person, long time advisor, roger stone. he stands out because he was not on staff in 2016 when trump won the nomination, and when that criminal hack occurred, but he's closer to trump than most operatives. stone began working for him all

the way back in '88. he and his lobbying partner paul manafort advised him in business and he helped launch in presidential campaign in 2015. nbc news was wondering who would help this man's long shot bid while stone professed his loyalty. >> the old guy who's been around forever, roger stone, maybe? >> roger stone always wanted me to run for president, and for years, every time a presidential race came up, he always wanted me to do. >> will you remain with donald throughout the campaign? >> i'll do whatever the donald asking me to do. >> roger stone put himself in the middle of controversies from nixon to bush. >> you play by the rules as they're written, when they change the rules, you change the way you play the game. >> the rules are changing

because the players are changing before our very eyes. and new tonight, questions for roger stone. we know bob mueller has questions about stone because he is subpoenaing other people about their contact with stone. we know even roger gets his behavior was suspicious as he recently told msnbc. >> wouldn't you consider that suspicious behavior if you were mr. mueller? >> yeah i would look for any proof that i had advanced knowledge of the content or the source. >> but in public, stone has not been consistent as he put it there the proof. even after posting about contact about those in the center of the 2016 meddling. why is mueller investigating someone who was not formally on the campaign in 2016. even though he left the campaign in 2016, always put yourself in

the center of controversy. >> it is better to be infamous, than never to be famous at all. >> associates of trump and the trump campaign, people like roger stone, for example. the atlantic magazine tonight also released direct messages between trump campaign associate roger stone and wikileaks, from a campaign advisor for the trump campaign named roger stone. a long time trump advisor roger stone. roger stone. >> the idea that mueller's investigating roger stone is questioning other witnesses, which suggests he could ultimately be one of the witnesses. one witness who's been inside the grand jury thinks he sees a case against roger stone. >> they're trying to put up a case against roger stone and i'm not going to have it, roger is my mentor, and he's like family to me and i'm not going to do it. >> and sam nunberg argued that

stone got himself into this mess. >> i said to roger, you're giving yourself a lot of exposure, claiming you're in communication with julians assange. >> did mueller ask you about trump's communication with julian assange? >> which brings us to question two, why did roger stone promote wikileaksing in 2016 but trump the can bat touted wikileaks more than 20 times during the campaign. >> he is a courageous journalist who has an incredible track record for authenticity. say this about julian assange, i reject the idea that he's a russian asset. i reject the idea that wikileaks is a russian front. >> and the person who made this documentary i just excerpted

said that stone was trying to arrange a personal visit to assange during the campaign. >> in july and in june of 2016, we -- he told us that he was trying to meet with julian assange, we spoke with him about the possibility of bringing our crew to london to film them meeting. >> and by this year, stone making good with a london visit where he left a note for assange. stone's defenders say that note and an icy set of twitter messages between stone and wikileaks suggests he doesn't have some intermediary back channel to assange. which brings us to question number three, why did he claim he did have an intermediary with assange and then back pedal? >> i actually have communicated with assange, i believe the next dump of documents pertain to the clinton foundation, but there's no telling what the october surprise may be. >> no, i have not spoken to mr.

assange, i have not met with mr. assange, and i never said i had, i said we communicated through an intermediary, who was a mutual friend. >> never said i had. stone later claimed he couldn't reveal that intermediary unless he was authorized. then stone flipped again saying that the supposed intermediary, roger credco. >> putin to me is a consummate politician for russia. a little less consummate when dealing with the rest of the world, but still pretty skilled. that was a historical moment that the democrats could have had. >> they certainly could. >> they could have had it. but they were successful in hyping up this russia narrative and thereby distracting from what would be the normal course of things.

>> so credico matters given his rare access to assange and roger stone. but when he spoke out on the beat, he totally contradicted stone's story, saying one, he didn't authorize stone to release his name and credico said he was not the intermediary between stone and assange. >> did you ever carry messages from julian assange and what he planned to do to anyone else in the world? >> i did not. i totally deny. >> you deny that? >> so stone's former associate, throwing cold water on his defense, which bring us to question four, why is stone turning on them and just about everyone else except trump and assange. in the past month, phone has published several newsletters, clapping back at all kinds of

opponents, he's put out these deep state cartoons that are kind of. he says that he struggles with his demons and did a disservice. he said that credico's memory is either selective or faulty. now i have covered stone for years. i have interviewed him on air during the 2016 campaign, he told a conservative website that msnbc has talented reporters that he respects, he added i like chris hayes, i like ari melber. and that's another story he's flipped on, hi turned on me calling me, a stone hater. and then he was quoted in the daily beast. now why this fixation on the daily beast, we have reached the final roger stone question, perhaps, why contact the hacker

guccifer and did stone know he worked for putin? because the daily beast is who reported the hacker of the dnc emails, that big crime that started all, wasn't a rogue whistle blower, they say it was a putin spy. >> the investigation of russian interference in our election has taken a new and important turn. >> so even if you put aside mueller's stone subpoena, and put aside stone's public defense of assange and stone's claimed intermediary to assange and stone's attempt to meet with assange, you could put aside the logical ethering of stone's associates, and you could put aside stone's apparent prediction that wikileaks material was going to come out before it leaked. put all that aside and you still have roger stone clapub thlicly

claiming contact with julian assange and emails that could -- the only thing left for roger stone if he ever does face mueller's investigators. at this point, is your best defense to tell them i lied about everything? let me bring in tonight's special panel. i have sam nunberg, a former trump campaign aid, who's involved in this. nick ackerman who interviewed roger stone during the watergate investigation. i'm also joined by randy credico who i mentioned is an associate of roger stone and who is a frequent communication with julian assange. >> i'm frill thrilled, ari. vince mcmahon should be the host

of this show. >> you make a wrestling reference, we're going to wrestle with the facts here. there's a lot on the table. sam? is roger's best defense saying he lied about all this? >> the minute he told me he met with assange, i assumed he was lying, it's a stone tactic. it's a trump tactic too. >> you mean roger stone lies to people like you, his mentee? >> i call it exaggerations, i think that i never asked really for the specifics of how he met with him, i never asked this or that. in fact i said this on another station, what i did ask immediately was did he have no information on stone, he said no, it was on the clinton foundation. and the last i knew there was no allegations -- i continually told them throughout that process, you're giving yourself

a lot of exposure here, he told me that julian assange is not connected with the russians. i said you can say whatever you want, if hillary clinton wins, she's going to go after you. >> what about this new report that you have, putin's intelligence service involved in the criminal hacking. and stone's response is not, i didn't know that if true, that's bad. but rather, that's not true. >> that's -- you know, it's continued to be. that's roger's -- that's part of his, you know, he works on infowars, he has a different set of foreign policies views and domestic views. >> i'm not talking foreign policy. you hear that, you imagine it's whatever adversary, north korea, iran, russia. that this is who hacked our democracy, through hacking emails, and instead of saying that he's bad, he denies he ever said it. what does that tell you. >> i don't know, what is that supposed to tell me? >> even more so, "the washington

post" has reported that in the spring of 2016, before anybody knew about the hacking by the russians into the democratic national committee, roger stone was telling people that there is going to be these emails that a group has that wikileaks has, and that they're going to be publishing these during the campaign and they're going to cause a lot of problems for podesta and for clinton. i mean doesn't that contradict what you were told? >> he never said that. >> you're talking about "the washington post" story that i was quoted as on the record -- >> thomas not t"the washington post" story, this is a completely different story about another source they had, that related, completely unrelated to you that had totally unrelated information. >> i'm not a speaker for roger here. roger said it the other day -- >> you're loyal to roger. >> i am loyal to him. >> but you're saying on tv that

he's a liar. that's his breast defense. >> i -- >> i said that you too have roger stone on his back. roger has a tattoo on his back, so that is layered. let me ask you, randy. >> yes. >> sam says roger's a lialiar - >> you said he was lying. >> he exaggerates. >> he exaggerates, that's not lying. >> randy -- >> randy, i haven't done the question yet. here's the question, you'll know it because it has a question mark at the end. >> good humor. >> julian assange -- >> yes. >> do you have any way of knowing if roger is lying? >> i can tell you for sure that roger had no contact with julian assange, either before or after, you're going to have to find somebody else that is the person that is the transmitter. >> you're not the intermediary? >> i'm saying that roger had no

contact ever. >> you said number one -- hold on. i just want to be clear. >> i didn't say that the -- >> randy, i want to be very clear. you have previously said that you were not his intermediary, and you also said that your belief based on your knowledge of these two men that he had no contact with julian assange. >> i can tell you with authority that stone never had contact with julian assange or sbeer immediate area? there's no reason to do it. >> do you think that roger stone is trying to trade on wikileaks for his own agenda? >> i think roger stone who was outside of his office that was dressed like jimmy cricket last month with the hat on, he likes attention. he insinuated himself into this story, the podesta email, you have to parse that email by roger stone. it says podesta's.

you don't know if he's talking about the podesta brothers. >> there's no question he wasn't talking about the podesta brothers. that's totally nonsense. you can tell just from the context, look what happens immediately afterwards. >> hold on. i am going to -- wait. >> what are you saying? >> what i'm saying -- >> randy, we're going to go nick and then balk to you. >> you took the fifth amendment when you testified before the committee. you took the fifth amendment and you basically said a truthful answer to questions asked would tend to incriminate me, correct? >> have you at long last no sense of decency? applying that? >> zchdidn't you take the fifth? >> i did. >> why? >> becaui want to be entrapped e fbi? i didn't want to be entrapped by the fbi or by congress. >> entrapped? all you have to do is tell the truth. you're not under oath now, so

why should we believe you if you go before the house committee and claim the fifth because you think a truthful answer can incriminate you. >> randy's term, but only if you answer. he raises a fair point. >> which one is that? >> i'm going to give it to you, if you took the fifth previously on the grounds it may incriminate you, why should americans believe you when you say that roger is lying and you also seem to be offering the same defense about podesta. >> why as a lawyer do you not prescribe for people to invoke the fifth amendment. there are reasons why people invoke the fifth amendment. hillary clinton's two aides invoked the fifth amendment, were they lying last year? i invoked it because i do not want to sit down with that committee, i do not believe in

that ecommittcommittee, i am no with adam schiff, i call it russia phobia. >> when is the last time you spoke to roger stone. >> i don't know, like a week and a half ago. >> it did you speak to him after you spoke on "the beat?" >> we communicate. it's a very weird thing. >> did he view it as helpful to him? >> he told me to do something, he told me do your impression from "godfather," i don't know any roger stone. >> same question for you, did you speak to roger and does he view what you're doing as helpful? >> he doesn't view it as helpful. and i spoke to him the friday before my grand jury appearance and i'm not going to speak to him until this investigation is over. >> we just laid out a lot of questions that are problematic for him, and he different from you, appeared to keep a relationship with donald trump, all this talk about wikileaks in

the close of the campaign, don't you think that he has to answer for that in very serious way, to clear his name if his name can be cleared? >> he wouldn't say he was lying, he will say he was joking. i think one of the principal reasons i got called in by mueller. he'll show his passport like he did on newsmax the other day, and he'll say i never said that and deny that. and the other point about august, very quickly, is right around early august is when he said he met with assange and that's when trump had asked for the emails. i think he's trying to engray shat with trump. >> nick ackerman, i want some of your legal -- i want your legal rebuttal to some of this, and i also want to ask you about

julian assange being cut off from the internet this week, your told us that sometimes he he -- >> he watches your show.

welcome back to "the beat." we're in the middle of a special discussion and appearances that we have not ever had live on television before, which is sam nunberg who testified before the

mueller's grand jury and former watergate prosecutor nick ackerman. for viewers just joining us, we went through a lot of the open questions about roger stone, we know he was the victim of a mueller subpoena, and to put it kindly, gihis best defense give all he's said is that he lied. >> it seems to me that the key question, which i put to both gentlemen is what was roger stone doing talking to guccifer 2.0, communicating with him on a regular basis, communicating, claiming to communicate with julian assange, repeated times and backing off it. what was any one person doing communicating with those two people while they were releasing all of these emails stolen from the democratic national committee? >> i'm going to go to sam on

that. did he ever say anything to you that made you think he knew that the actual source of guccifer might be a foreign intelligence operation? sh. >> no, he argued with me constantly that it was not the russians. >> that it was not the russians? >> and i said to him, you can think that, perhaps it's true, but why don't you go and argue with our national intelligence agenciy ies when it looked at t time that hillary clinton was going to be president and there was surely going to be repercussions about what roger stone was doing. >> whether he could go to london and meet assange, and this goes to his state of mind and his exposure, he rebuts it, he calls you out as his mentor. i want to show you roger stone going on the record saying he went to london. >> i got him on the phone and i said, do you have plans for the weekend, and i said, yes, i think i'll fly to london and have dinner with julian assange,

it was a joke. >> was it a joke? >> that's not the way i recollect it. that's not the way i recall it. but that's roger. >> was that a no? >> was it a joke to me? >> was it a joke? did you take it as a joke? >> oh, i want the russians to go steal 30,000 emails from hillary clinton, he says it very clearly, very methodically, and then he says it was a joke. >> i love wikileaks. >> i want to put on the screen, a quote from julian assange. he does make an appearance here. he said basically astounding 35-minute interview between trump campaign aid and roger stone associate sam nunberg and myself. this is something he presumably watched from his exile in london, but this week, he wonder -- won't be able to do that because they have cut off his internet access. >> i hope that the president of

ecuador reconsiders, because he already lives in a spot that's smaller than the green room. he gets no sunlight. he doesn't get to see his kids or his mother, he doesn't get to see anything. he's been there for 5 1/2 years. >> something that you and i both care about, the treatment of people. and i understand that, although his case is complex. >> why is it complex? he's a journalist like you. >> a journalist? he's a criminal. the guy belongs in federal prison. >> randy, randy. >> he has stolen secrets, he works for the russians. all of the intelligence agencies have pins. we have all five of them siayin that. when did you ever work in an intelligence agency? when did you ever work for the government? >> randy, final question. the reason -- i understand your

point about the treatment, and i think it's a fair point, and you make some fair points when you're not making the impressions. i want to read to you, assange breached a written agreement not to send out messages that interfere in other countries business. >> he's a journalist. if it were the old president of ecuad ecuador, this wouldn't have happened. this happens to be kacat catalah is part of spain. and this is him supporting the catalan freedom fighters. >> when you look at what mueller has left, do you see him more likely to proceed on the criminal hacks or on wikileaks role? >> i think it's going to be both, i think it's going to be the criminal hacks, it's going to be the sbechbt intent to con >> i'll be on the show "lockup" if mueller --

>> we never even get to see mueller. >> you know the segment's over when it's over. and it's over. sam, randy and nick, thank you for coming and doing this, i appreciate your time, i appreciate you taking the invite. roger stone's invite remains open. and the developing story in an effort to get trump deposed about stormy daniels. and things get a little personal, wait until you see who michael cohen's new lawyer is. t more than a thousand workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get.

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let's turn to some other stories, shall we? there is developing news on the stormy daniels-trump battle. a judge denying a request by her lawyer to get trump deposed by michael cohen. they say it's premature. stormy's saga going from ugly to personal. he's been popping up everywhere in the last day. he represents michael cohen,

he's the lawyer for the lawyer. >> he went to michael cohen and said, hey, give us 1$130,000 an we'll make this go away. >> you're saying that michael cohen never told trump about it? >> and michael cohen dispensed $130,000 of his own money and never sought reimbursement from donald trump? >> never happened. >> what's the truth? >> the truth is he loves -- he loves the boss, and -- >> he did it out of love? >> he did it -- everybody should want an employee like this, that you would be so loyal to your boss, so loyal to your boss, that you will protect that person. >> they're laughing at you, openly. come on. >> monica carlson is back with us. should everybody want an employee like this? >> i want to be loved that way. you know, the interesting thing about what happened today is that it's not really a set back

in that it was filed early on, his deposition request and you can refile it. what david schwartz did was to call michael cohen a fixer, happily call him a fixer, in order to make it seem as if michael cohen was totally in charge of what happened. but, you know, i think trump made a colossal error, lowered there by avanatti, that by filing this $20 million lawsuit for damages, he's admitting, it wasn't just michael cohen, that he was dennis denison, and that he's part of the paying out of hush money to keep stormy daniels quiet and this is a suit because she breached the agreement that isn't really an agreement because it wasn't signed, isn't that, ari, i mean i'm just a country lawyer and you're really a lawyer.

isn't that an admission that he is part of this and he does need to cover it up? >> yeah, i mean i think that's the basic implication, even if they are kind of bobbing and weaving and they bobbing and we'ving and have a temporary procedural victory. the president learned today he's not going to be depoted anytime soon. all of that action in the case suggests he is on the other side of the table which is a big problem. margaret carlson, i don't know if you watched the last segment. >> it was worth it. you can keep me waiting anytime. >> thank you. we'll have you back on the beat" soon. up ahead, one more important thing on immigration. fact checking donald trump's new pledge and promise of why he says he's building the wall already. that's next. allergies with sinus congestion and pressure?

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for many conservatives donald trump's promise to bid a wall is the top promise. that may be why trump is tweeting out pictures of what he claimed was "the start of a southern border wall," and why

he said this today. >> we started building our wall. i'm so proud of it. we started, we have $1.6 million and we've already started. you saw the pictures yesterday. what a thing of beauty. >> you saw those beautiful pictures and the wall looks good. >> this is the real argument even though it's not true and not his wall. workers are actually fixing part of a fence in california and it's not new. it began in the '90s. trump can't take credit for the update because this project came under an '09 order from obama. the border patrol in san diego tweeting this photo from a month ago. the wall not built yet. of course, not paid for by mexico. some supporters getting antsy. >> his number one priority was getting that border wall built. >> i've been clear about had i promises he has broken. to build a wall and deport illegals. >> what he promised was a wall.

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that is our show. we are done. i'll see you back at 6:00 p.m. eastern. "hardball" with chris matthews starts now. more drama for the trump white house. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthews. another day, another drama for president trump and his cabinet. attorney general jeff sessions telling congress he will not appoint a second special counsel to look into political bias in the fbi, something the president made clear he wanted. this comes after yesterday's shake-up with the president firing his veterans affairs secretary. early in his terp, trump promised his cabinet